Over the past few years, I’ve noticed (and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:written about) a frustrating trend in triple-A action-adventure games. Whether it's 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:God of War Ragnarok, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Callisto Protocol, or 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy 16, this generation’s big-budget linear ☂narrative games seem to be getting smaller and smaller. Despite their often bloated runtimes, they feel increasingly tiny because they hem the player in at all times, directing them along a narrow critical path with few choices about where to go and what to do.
The Callisto Protocol was the worst offender on this count. In 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:my review at the end of 2022, I noted that its extreme linearity kept the player from feeling like they were ever discovering anything. Triple-A games have often been compared to r♈oller coasters, but this was one of the rare games I’ve played (outside of light gun games in arcades or old school platformers like Crash Bandicoot) where the experience never let you leave the rails at all.
But, other games have less extreme examples of the same tendency. God of War Ragnarok’s world felt like a theme park to me, with corridors guiding you betwe🍷en attractions, not like a world that actually existed or mattered outside the confines of your story. Final Fantasy 16 had the same problem, grabbing your hand and leading you from battle to battle with little to do or think about in between.
A "Wide Linear" Take On Seattle
So, it’s been refreshing to revisit 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Last of Us Part 2 in 2024 and get a reminder that linear triple-A games don’t have to be like this. Though 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Naughty Dog is seen as the trendsetter for modern action-adventure games, its PS4 magnum opus actually plays♓ very differently than many of the games the Santa Monica studio has inspired.
This hit me hard when I reached Seattle and made it past the main gate. Here, the narrow overgrown streets and forest paths that you’ve been traveling emerge into a wide open area where the city has been reclaimed by greenery. You can see as much or as little of this as you want, scavenging the local shops for supplies (and a memorable serenade) or beelining it for the gasoli🐽ne you need in order to progress.
Naughty Dog has called its games “wide linear,” and levels like this — plus the Madagascar section in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Uncharted 4 and the Western Ghats chapter from Lost Legacy — exemplify that approach to design. They’re linear in the grand scheme ▨of things. You can’t choose to take a different path forward — you need to find fuel to progress to the next part of Seattle♛. But, they’re also broad, allowing for many choices about where to go first (or skip completely) within that limited section.
Naughty Dog’s games also provide more to do even when you’re on a tight critical path. In The Last of Us games, each battle can be tackled in multiple ways, and there are sup🍬plies and collectibles to find around each area.
It’s true that The Last of Us Part 2 is an impossible standard to reach in some ways. Few developers can deliver the graphical fidelity Naughty Dog can, and Naughty Dog was only able to achieve it through 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:its use of crunch. But, hyper-linearity is a design decision, and developers can choose to make their games different. I love linear games but, increasingly, this kind of experience asks players to turn off their brains 🌳and run in one direction until the next fight. That’s boring, and The Last of Us Part 2 is a reminder that there’s another way to do it.
The Last Of Us Understands That Deadnamꦑes Are Complicated
ꦇLev's story is one of trans hardship, joy, and startling real𓆏ism. We are with him every step of the way.